Texas court bounces Triller/TikTok patent dispute to California

A judge in Texas has agreed to bounce a patent dispute between Triller and TikTok to the courts in California following a request by the latter’s owner Bytedance.

A judge in Texas has agreed to bounce a patent dispute between Triller and TikTok to the courts in California following a request by the latter’s owner Bytedance.

Triller sued its rival video-sharing app in the Texas courts a year ago, accusing TikTok of infringing one of its patents. Specifically US Patent Number 9,691,429 which covers “systems and methods for creating music videos synchronised with an audio track”.

TikTok and Bytedance responded in the Californian courts in October, seeking judicial confirmation that neither they, nor their products, nor their users “infringe the patent and that none of them are liable for damages or injunctive relief”.

At the same time Bytedance argued that the Texan court where Triller had filed its lawsuit was not an appropriate forum for the dispute, give both app makers have key operations in California.

Seemingly convinced by those arguments, judge Alan Albright granted a motion on Friday to move the case to the Northern District Of California. All documents associated with that request remain sealed.

Law360 notes that Albright was recently criticised by the US Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit in Washington – which considers patent law appeals – over his handling of other requests to move patent cases out of his court, which may or may not have made him more open to Bytedance’s motion in this dispute.